Is it a Bird

Societies take many different approaches to putting on performances, some take months, but a more radical approach is to take 24 youngsters aged 3 – 18 and give them 6 days to put on a 2 Act musical. Somehow Barton Players have become old hands at this and for their seventeenth production of this kind gave us ‘Is It A Bird?’ written and directed by Keith Badham.

The formula obviously works, and the young people involved clearly enjoy the process with many returning year after year. The work that goes on both on and off stage to get a show ready in such a short time is immense and couldn’t happen without the whole team of cast and crew pulling together, a remarkable achievement.

The storyline centred around the demise of all our Superheroes and having the likes of Superman, Batman and Thor being replaced by a new batch of up-and-coming pretenders to save the world from an equally odd assortment of villains. So basically a good versus evil tale and a love story thrown in for good measure, but in all honesty the plot plays second fiddle to jokes that range brilliantly from cringeworthy to appalling. I can only imagine Christmas Day in the Badham household is spent pulling crackers and deciding which jokes are bad enough to be involved in the next year’s show. There was also an inevitable fight scene between good and bad which was cleverly choreographed using speech bubbles, no prizes for guessing the winners.

With all the cast having a named role it could have been a bit confusing, except the roles all had wonderfully appropriate names. Much easier to follow when characters such as ‘Rude Woman’ and ‘Unimpressed Man’ are involved.

The show was linked together by using several characters to keep us all abreast of the goings on. ‘Reporter’ (Ava Simmons) did most of this legwork assisted by ‘Commissioner Norman (William Thompson-Hoare), with ‘Professor Prime’ (Lauren Platt), ‘Professor Contradiction’ (Edward Thompson-Hoare) and ‘Professor Not At All Evil’ (Neve Butler) also ensuring the story kept moving along.

Our superheroes were many in number with Daisy Cassels’ ‘Oddly Emotional Woman’ gaining confidence throughout to lead the pack alongside ‘Captain Flamboyant’ (Leo Williamson) and ‘Dr Magic’ (Harrison Hunt). These were well backed up by ‘Rude Woman’ (Serena King), ‘Over Confident Man’ (Finn Thompson-Hoare), ‘Earth Woman’ (Tallulah Smith), ‘Following The Rules Man’ (Artie Applewhite-Rees), ‘Otherworldly Woman’ (Maddie Wetherill), ‘Unimpressed Man’ (Thomas Applewhite-Rees), ‘Spaniel Boy’ (Joel Platt) and ‘Drifts Off Through A Sentence Woman’ played by Kera Rose at the performance I saw, she had great comic timing delivering the first part of every sentence. Kera also played ‘Professor Not At All Evil’ on the next show.

There was one other superhero waiting in the wings (or was he?) in the shape of the Caretaker ‘Trooper’ played by Ashley Riley - Mr Super Cool - who became the love interest of ‘Oddly Emotional Woman’. Ashley and Daisy worked well together and both got better and better as they relaxed into their parts as the show went on.

The villains were led by ‘The Dark Presence’ (Christin Farr) and ‘Dr Doom’ (Olivia Horwood), ably assisted by ‘The Mind Reader’ (Niamh Quinlan), ‘Rat Woman’ (Ella May Wathall), Sheep Man (Christopher Paxton), ‘Bernard’ (Faith McNevin) and, last but certainly not least ‘Slug Boy’ (Albie Anderson). I presume as Albie is 3 years old it was his debut on stage - well he certainly made a name for himself and his own catch phrase of ‘It is I – Slug Boy’ will long be remembered. He also got a lot of sympathy when he had salt sprinkled over him.

Milly Badham’s stage design was a simple but well thought out backdrop of Bottom City skyline and Batmaneqsue speech bubbles, with of course a telephone box which was adorned with cast made posters.

The music did tend to be a bit shoe-horned in but is none the less enjoyable mostly using well known songs. Christian Farr’s ‘West End Girls’ went down well, and if I was confused as to why Leo Williamson was singing ‘My Girls Mad At Me’ he certainly sang it well. We also had a boy band who overacted splendidly in their version of the Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want It That Way’. The musical highlight though was Faith McNevin and Olivia Horwood’s rendition of ‘Feeling Good’, beautifully sung with feeling and ease by both girls.

Chloe Badham’s choreography was set to suit all abilities but excelled on ‘See You Again’ and ‘Super Trouper’ where the movement of the cast around the stage was excellent. The sound (Adam Bowie) and lighting (Keith Bowie) were good, and it was nice to see lighting getting their moment to shine or in this case a blackout.

Derryanne Blunt and Linda Forster’s costumes suited the characters and were well thought out, particularly where a distinction was required.

This kind of show relies heavily on help and assistance - a strong production team being essential. Without the commitment from Rachael Bowie’s crew of assistants the whole week would simply not have been possible.

In conclusion it was a highly entertaining evening enjoyed not only by the audience but by everyone in the building off and on stage. Barton Players produce a great feeling of joy for these shows, the epitome of which was in Keith Badham’s opening address in which he thanked parents for ‘lending them their children for the week’, long may that continue.

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